Fall Back
by CloZack PASSION
Summary: The events of meteor have played out, and done is done. You can't change the past, right? (Rated for rough language) CHAPTER SIX IS UP! Behold that which is Barret and Dyne!
1. Looking back

((A/N: Haven't written anything in a while, so I decided to get back to a nice little CloTi fic. It's kinda dumb, most likely, but I'm not even sure what it'll be about entirely yet, so maybe not. lol. Anyways....enjoy!))  
  
January 21....the winter hollidays had passed weeks ago, and most of the members of the famous rebel group, AVALANCHE, were back home, living their lives.   
  
They had rejoined for the hollidays just less than a month ago, having a reunion. The attendacne was rather surprising, as even Vincent and Reeve made an appearance; Nobody had expected either of the 'mystery men' to show up.   
  
What was more surprising, and perhaps unsettling, was who was not there. One twenty year old woman who had been a crutial staple to the group during there long journey.   
  
One Tifa Lockheart was nowhere to be found.  
  
Cloud Strife, the unspoken hero, was the one most concerned by his childhood friend's absence from this get-together. This had been the first time the group had reunited officially since they disbanded several months before. To be honest, hopes of seeing Tifa again were the most driving force behind his attendance.  
  
He was sure she would be there. Then he could apologize. He knew he hurt her in the past, and that knowledge was ripping his heart to bits. He'd declined her offer -a perfect offer, he saw now- to live with him in Nibelheim while she ran her bar. He'd declined her to try and atone.   
  
Atonement was something that had become rather important to Cloud these days. He knew that while he may have saved many by defeating Sephiroth, he had killed and crushed so many more. Tifa, he now realized, must have been one of them.   
  
Of all the people Cloud was sure would keep in contact with the rest of the group, Tifa was the one at the top of his mind. He bit his lip, almost as though to draw blood, thinking about where she may have been. Maybe she was off somewhere and just hadn't gotten the message. He tried to further advance his theory, but something was nagging at him, telling him that wasn't the reason at all.  
  
He knew the reason, though his stubborn mind and fragile heart wouldn't let him accept it. The reason was truely because he hurt Tifa. Because she loved him, and he had all but rejected her. This realization brought even more discomfort to his already troubled mind.  
  
'She wouldn't have ignored this gathering just because of me....' he tried to convince himself, but just as before, his mind wouldn't change itself. His heart contracted and he felt a cold grip grab onto it. Something was definately wrong...he knew that from the start...but what?   
  
Had Tifa really rejected the offers for a reunion with all her friends just because he would be there? He knew Tifa, and that's what disturbed him about this....he knew Tifa wouldn't blow a chance to be with her friends just because he was an asshole to her.  
  
For one, Tifa would get over it. She didn't take little mood swings seriously, as they shouldn't be taken that way. But, beyond that, she'd never show anyone that someone had hurt her. That she was weak....fragile.....human.  
  
Cloud knew Tifa could never admit her humanity in such a way. In such a way as to admit to her weaknesses. Tifa was too stubborn to ever do a thing like that.  
  
So he continued to worry. He sat at his desk, typing haltingly at the computer. Entering words that came from his soul into an e-mail. A lousy e-mail. Instead of going to visit, or at least writing a real letter or calling, he was writing Tifa an e-mail.  
  
"This is insane." he heard himself say. It was. But he wasn't sure how to reach her. She hadn't spoken to anyone since the group broke up, so they barely knew where she could be found other than by phone or e-mail. And her phone was disconnected.   
  
Cloud knew, as he had tried a good hundred times to call her. Never getting so much as a ring or even a voice mail. Just a dull voice telling him that the number he had dialed was 'temorarily out of service'.   
  
Cloud's hand slowly reached for the mouse, and he scanned the letter over again before slowly hitting the 'send' button.   
  
It couldn't have been a minute later that the phone rang. Cloud reached over and picked it up, slightly in a daze, though he couldn't figure out why untill he answered it.  
  
"Cloud Strife...." he answered, logging out of his e-mail at the same time.  
  
"Yo, Spike.....great, I was hopin' you'd answer....." He instantly recognized Barret's voice, but beyond that, the worried undertones in it.  
  
"What's up, man?" Cloud asked, frowning as he spoke. The next words were some he should've expected, but could've never guessed.  
  
"I'm at the hospital......" Cloud wanted to speak, but he had an eerie feeling that he knew what was coming next. "It's Teef, man.......she's....... she's....Cloud.....you....gotta get here. Cloud.... Teef's dyin'." 


	2. Arrival and Absence

((Wow...lots of response. I guess I'll have to continue this ;-) Enjoy!!))  
  
The grave look in Barret Wallace's eyes pierced a cold hole in Cloud's heart. He prayed silently that he wasn't too late. That he hadn't missed his last chance to see his best friend. To talk to her...hold her hand....confess everything that he should've told her so long ago.  
  
"How is she!?" Cloud asked quickly, pain and tears clouding his sapphire eyes. Barret surveyed his friend, feeling a distinct chill in his bones, nearly as cold as the look in Barret's eyes.  
  
"Slippin'" his voice was thick with tears, which were also evident in his eyes. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days, and spent the sleepless nights crying instead of resting.  
  
"....How....." Cloud choked on his tears, "...how long?" he managed to force out, his throat constricting. He didn't want to know. Oh God how he didn't want to know. But he needed to. He needed to know just how much he was going to tell her. If he'd even be able to...  
  
"She's awake now." Barret said quietly. "The doctor said...maybe two...three hours at the most. An'....even dats stretchin' it." Cloud's face twisted up. Hours. He had only a couple more hours to spend with the love of his life. He knew he had to make them count. "she's......been askin' for you." Barret added. The fact surprised Cloud, since she hadn't spoken to him in months before that. He was going to wonder more why, but Barret all-but directly answered the question.  
  
"She knows she ain't got much longer." he spoke at last. "I guess......it's a goodbye." before he could speak another word, Cloud had darted into Tifa's room.  
  
He could barely recognize the frail woman on the bed. Wires and tubes snaked from her weak body, monitors tracing the functions of her failing body. He had to bite his lip hard not to cry when he saw her. She was dying....he could tell just by looking at her. Her skin was ashen, and there were dark circles under her eyes. The bandages on her head and totally covering her chest spoke of her condition.  
  
"Cloud." Yet, her eyes were just as bright as they'd ever been when they locked into Cloud's, and she seemed to brighten up considerably. Her voice was barely a whisper, but more than loud enough for Cloud to hear. He strode over and pulled the chair up close to her bed.  
  
"Teef." he responded, taking the hand she offered. He rubbed her knuckles with his thumb, exmaining her face. He could tell she was in pain. It was obvious from the harsh lines and tauntness of the muscles.  
  
"I was praying you would come." she said after a length, smiling up at him. How could she smile? Cloud asked himself. She was dying. Yet, her grin was as contagious as ever, and a sorry-looking smile crossed Cloud's lips.  
  
"How do you feel?" he asked quietly, holding her hand tight now. She let out a small snort.  
  
"Do you really want me to answer that?" and Cloud knew he didn't.  
  
"Barret said you wanted to see me. I'm glad I came to see you." he whispered, suddenly pulling in and kissing her forehead. She stared at him, eyes wide.  
  
"What was that for?" she asked, her eyes glitter. How she'd wished for him to kiss her, if only it were under different circumstances.  
  
"For you." he said quietly. "for strength....and courage....." he added. Tifa smiled a little at him.  
  
"I'll need it. Everything's dark ahead.... and I'm afraid of death." she added after a slight pause. She felt bad, as she could see from the hurt look on Cloud's face that she'd chosen poor words. "Cloud......I have something...." she suddenly groped over on the table next to her bed, gripping something in her hand. Cloud looked at her quizically, and she instructed him to hold out his hand. He did so, and she placed a materia in it.  
  
"I got this for you...before I was attacked. It's...a special materia. You can go back, Cloud. And save Aeris. Make it so she lives......I went to get it for you." she paused for a long moment. "I know how much she means to you." Cloud was speechless as he rolled the deep gray-blue materia in the palm of his hand.  
  
"Tifa." he whispered. Pain and guilt washed over him as the painfull realization hit him. Tifa had gone looking for this...for him. That's when she got hurt. Because she wanted him to be happy. She wanted him to be with Aeris. Aeris....who he was sure now that Tifa believed he loved. She sacraficed herself to give him another chance with the flower girl. "Tifa how could you!?" he cried, grabbing onto her wrists.  
  
"How could you do that to me!?" he shouted, shaking her incontrolably. Tifa's eyes welled with tears and she felt a strange pain. she still hadn't made him happy. She'd still failed.  
  
"Do......what? she whispered, her body weakly flapping as he shook it. "I....only wanted.....you happy." she whispered, tears trailing down her ashen cheeks. Cloud realized what he was doing and suddenly dove in and hugged her.  
  
"I'm so sorry...." he whispered, now sobbing. Cloud Strife was crying, gripping onto the weakening body of his childhood friend. He was causing her death, then being angry with her for it. He knew he messed up, and this time, it was more than just a little screw-up. It was the life of the woman he loved. "...but why? Now.....you're leaving me....." he sobbed.  
  
Tifa's mind was reeling. Why was Cloud being so emotional all of a sudden? Was it her impending death having this effect on him?  
  
"But....you can go back. Save her." Tifa whispered. "Aeris can be with you and you can be happy..."  
  
"...not without you." he suddenly burst out, holding her tight. Tifa wanted to speak, but her heart fluttered dangerously. She was slipping...her life was being pulled from her. Cloud felt it too, laying her back on her pillow. He took her hand gently.  
  
"Tifa....hang in there for a minute. I gotta tell you...."  
  
"I love you Cloud." she suddenly whispered, her smile returning. She had it out. The heart monitor's steady tone was no longer so, rather a slow and everchanging blip.  
  
"I love you too, Teef." he whispered, tears streaming forth now. "You can never know how-" he stopped. Everything stopped. She was slipping. She kissed his hand and drifted. A long tone punctuated the deafening silence, and Cloud's world went dark just as her's did.  
  
***  
  
"WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT MOTHERFUCKIN' DISRESPECTFULL LITTLE FUCK!?" Cid Highwind screamed, tearing through the small crowd, his feet sloshing on the muddy grass. A small tent-like cover was over the deep rectangular hole in the ground, and a line of chairs were opposite it.  
  
"Cid...." Shera said softly, taking his hand. She could see the distress in his steely blue eyes, and knew the rest of his friends shared it, but this was neither the time nor the place. He nodded and looked down, a few tears sliding down his rough face.  
  
"He should be here." Cid finally said quietly, his voice was gruff and thick with emotion. "She loved that fucker, he should be here!" his voice steadily became louder and Shera hushed him again.  
  
"He gonna be here." Barret's deep voice assured, "This ain't no walk in the park for him.... he gonna be here." Cid slowly nodded, but he couldn't believe him. Looking around at the faces he didn't ever want to see...not under these circumstances, more greif attacked his heart.  
  
The tear-blotched face of the young emperess, Deep graveness (not something new, though) of the ex- Turk, Bowed head of the new-Midgar executive, slow wag of the fire beast's tail, the four-year old girl, sobbing in her father's arms. It was heartwrenching, but what made it all worse was the lack of that usually carefree ex-SOLDIER. The one who should've been there most. 


	3. Ghosts and Time Travel

((Sorry the last chapter was so long in the works, so short, and so terrible, but it should finally begin to pick up here. Please keep reading, and reviewing, all my loyal fans....(yeah right) Wow...people really liked this one. I know you probably won't enjoy this chapter, but it gets lots and lots better. Promise!))  
  
~Three Weeks Later~  
  
Cloud Strife slumped against the large marble memorial that marked Tifa Lockheart's grave-site. He bit his lips, and tears spilled over his cheeks as he rolled the cobalt material in the palm of his hand. He looked up at the bright sky, his hands trembling from the pain in his heart and the cold on the rest of his body.  
  
"Why'd you have to leave me?" he questioned the sky quietly, "Why couldn't you have stayed!? What the hell were you thinking!?" he cried, then stopped. "No...." he smiled now, tears hot on his freezing face. "....it's my fault....I..." his voice broke. "I should've told you when I had the chance."  
  
"You're damn right." The voice shocked Cloud, and he was sure that the cold had taken him. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. But he could still feel the stinging cold....maybe he'd gone unconcious. The voice ceased for a moment, but continued, "Cloud Strife, you look at me when I speak to you!" He cringed his eyes shut and didn't open him until he had come face to face with glimmering, transparent emerald eyes.  
  
"Aeris." He said plainly, the tears on his chin beginining to actually solidify.  
  
"Good...you remember me. Now I have a bone to pick with you, Cloud Strife!" Cloud cringed, not sure how else to react. This was some coma-dream (he was sure he'd passed out, then slipped into a coma by now) that's for sure.  
  
"What would you like, Aeris?" he asked dully, as if this was the most common, and perhaps annoying, thing in the world.  
  
"You screwed up." she said sharply. Cloud let out a sharp laugh.  
  
"No kidding."  
  
"But she gave you the cnace to change it, you know." Cloud looked confused for a moment, then it hit him.  
  
"The materia?"  
  
"You can change the future, Cloud. Go to the past, and change today." Aeris said softly, slowly seeming more like the sweet, good-natured flower girl he'd known.  
  
"You can't change the past."  
  
"No...but you can."  
  
***  
  
Cloud looked around, Nibelheim looking just as it had when he was a child. That, of course, was because he *was* a child again. Just a boy, young and vibrant, not that that part of him had changed much until recently.  
  
"Amazing." he whispered. And it was. Nibelheim stood in all its quaint beauty, the small village holding such a nostalgia it was almost frightening. Of course, on that deep-down level, this was very frightening. Everything had happened before, and now he had to relive it. To change it.  
  
It was horrifying, when the young Cloud's adult mind traveled to that dark corner. What he had to do to save his friends. Zack...Aeris...Tifa. He didn't know *what* he was supposed to do, only that he had to act fast.  
  
9 years before he joined AVALANCHE, before the group actually took shape, before the fall of Shinra.  
  
He knew what he had to do first at least, and that entailed a trip to Gongaga. He had to get Tifa and stop Zack from joining SOLDIER. Sephiroth, Nibelheim, Aeris... they would wait. Zack was first up, and he had only weeks to travel across the continent.  
  
"What in the *world* is going on, Cloud Strife?" He turned quickly and his face broke into a boyish grin. Tifa stood behind him in her light blue sundress and flip-flop sandels, hands firm on her hips.  
  
"I came back to save you." He said quietly, his high-pitched, pre-pubescent child's voice catching him off gaurd. Tifa giggled, obviously surprised as well. Her own voice was a sweet, childish, sing-song tone. She seemed like the kind of girl who would sing the lead in a school play, because she had that innocent look and sweet voice. Her huge wine eyes rolled as she let out an exasperated sigh.  
  
"You were SUPPOSED to go save Aeris!" she said, shaking her head. "I swear Cloud, can't you ever-"  
  
"-I want to save you all." he interrupted her, coming a few steps closer. His bright eyes sparkled with such beauty, something partially hidden with the mako that would later infest them, as he spoke; "First...we gotta go to Gongaga..." he said, not bothering explaining who 'everyone' was.   
  
"Zack..." she whispered, her hands letting go of her small, boney, hips and resting at her sides now. "...what are we gonna do? We're just kids....what makes you think he'll listen to us?" she asked, knowing she wouldn't have a choice on whether she was to join him or not.  
  
"He's only two years older than us, Teef. Don't worry, he'll listen. And...how do you know he doesn't remember too? I'll bet everyone in AVALANCHE does... maybe he does too..."  
  
"Then..." Tifa began, biting her lip, "...who's to say Shinra and the Turks and all of them don't remember the future too? And Sephiroth...." she gasped, her wine eyes huge in her small face.  
  
"That's why we're getting Zack before we worry about Aeris. We'll go to Cosmo Canyon too, then Corel..." he stopped. "But first... we need to go to the mansion." Ideas were overlapping eachother in his mind, and he couldn't sort them as endless more tumbled in.  
  
"Vincent..." she said quietly, then nodded. "...but...you don't have any weapons." she said softly. Cloud shrugged. "We'll have to wait until we get out of Nibelheim for that. You can fight without gloves, right?" she nodded so he continued, "And Vincent will be able to shoot...."  
  
"...how can we be sure he'll even come with us?" Tifa asked, not sure things would be quite that simple. Things weren't simple last time...why would they be any better this time 'round?  
  
"He will. Just have a little faith in me, Teef." Cloud assured her.   
  
Tifa had plenty of faith in him. Otherwise, she'd have used the time-turn materia herself to make things better. She knew he could do this. It was everyone else she didn't have faith in. The rest of her 'friends' that she had no faith in.  
  
***  
  
"Cloud...I hate this place....Do we really have to wake him up?" Tifa's shy voice hung thick in the dusty air of the abandoned Shinra mansion. Cloud clutched the key in his small fist and Tifa's wrist in the other.  
  
"It'll only take a minute, Teef...stop being a baby." he scolded, practically dragging her up the stairs and to the bedroom to their immediate right.   
  
Overall, the place was alot less...well, abandoned. Shinra SOLDIERs still used it as recently as just two years before, and the dust was just settled in its semi-thick coat on the stationary adornments.  
  
Cloud let go of Tifa's hand, shoving the key into it. He wedged his small, chubby fingers into the crack in the "furnace" and searched for the release switch. He smiled and flicked his hands upwards, the door coming loose and slowly creaking open.  
  
"I'll go down...you can wait here." Cloud said, starting down the steep wooden stairway.  
  
"No way!" Tifa protested, shivering. "There's no way you're gonna leave me here alone!" she exclaimed, grabbing his hand with both of hers. He sighed, his head hanging low,  
  
"Fine...just don't freak out, alright?" He said, slowly stepping down the unsturdy stairway. The stairs creaked heavily even though the combined weight of the two children couldn't have been more than 120 lbs.  
  
"Me? Freak out? Never." Tifa smiled and Cloud snickered, hopping down the stairs now, gaining some courage. Tifa hung back now, carefully planting her feet gently on each step.  
  
"see? you're already being all-AIEEEEEE!" Cloud had turned around to face Tifa, and decided to hop backwards down the stairs. One, Two, three stairs perfectly, then...BAM! His shoe caught on a large splinter on the next step down, and he flew backwards, his head creating a sickening crack-thud sound on the next step as his body tumbled backwards to the bottom of staircase.   
  
Tifa's heart pounded frantically against her chest and she ran the fastest she could manage downt he stairs after him. "Cloud!" she cried, catching up to his body at the bottom of the stairs. She slowly turned him onto his back and gasped. There was a huge gash on the side of his head, which was bleeding rather bad, and his lip was actually split and also bleeding.   
  
"My God, Cloud..." she whispered, setting the unconcious boy up against herself. She put her pudgy fingers to his neck to get a pulse, and was barely relieved when she found the slight one she did.   
  
She chewed on her lip for a moment, remembering her father's first aid instructions. When a person is injured this badly, it wasn't good to them. But these weren't exactally the most normal of circumstances, so she decided agianst her father's advice and hoisted her unconcious love onto her shoulder, and struggled to Vincent's secret hideaway beneath the dead weight. 


	4. Injury and MARRIAGE?

((All the awesome reviews I got back in chapter two inspired me to keep writing. I haven't read any from chapter three if I got any, but believe me, I expected flames. You have to give it a little time to get good again...I know time travel usually makes for shitty fics, but this won't be the worst of them, I swear. Because this is not a CloRis. XD Anyways...please continue with your kind, kind reviews. Y'all rule! *so stuck up on herself forever.*))  
  
Tifa's eyes surveyed the room in which Vincent Valentine was sleeping. Apparently nothing here was different for the future, and she was glad for this, because it left the two empty caskets on either side of the ex-Turk. She tucked Cloud's body into the one on Vincent's left. The velvet was musty and moth-eaten, but still had some soft cushioning beneath the fabric.   
  
She had fashioned some bandages out of Cloud's shirt, which were now wrapped around his head, stemming the heavy flow of blood. She was mesmorized for a second as she watched the steady rise and fall of his shallow chest. There was some heavy bruising on his stomach and up the left side of his chest, and she was sure he'd cracked a rib or two at least.  
  
"Now...for the hard part." she sighed, surveying the middle coffin. The thought of opening the lid frightened her. She and Cloud may have remembered the past, but who was to say anyone else had? Cloud's logic, -as usual- she reminded herself, didn't quite hold. But she also knew Vincent was probably crucial to saving Cloud. Her makeshift bandages weren't exactally the greatest, and she'd no idea if he had broken bones or any internal injuries.  
  
So she proceded to pry at the edge of the coffin. Surprisingly, though, it wasn't as heavy as she'd anticipated, and it easily slid off. Inside was Vincent, wearing his cape and deep blue shirt and pants. He looked the same, but his hair wasn't half as long. It made him look like he was in an in-between, incomplete stage of development...perhaps the same as she and Cloud were right now as children.  
  
"Vincent." she whispered. No response, so she spoke louder, "Vincent!" She said, raising her voice. Still nothing. "VINCENT VALENTINE OPEN YOUR EYES RIGHT THIS SECOND!" she was already on edge, and felt like she didn't have a second to waste.  
  
This time a single crimson eye opened and peered into hers.  
  
"Young Lockheart?" he questioned, opening his other eye now, focusing on her chubby face. Tifa stepped back, her fears subsided at least for the time.  
  
"Vincent...ya gotta help me." she pleaded, gazing over at the shirtless boy in the next coffin over. Vincent sat up in the coffin and followed her gaze.  
  
"And....Strife?" There was an obvious confusion in his voice, but even of Vincent this should've been expected.  
  
"He fell down the stairs...I think he's in bad shape...I'm not sure if he's still bleeding...please help." she spoke fast and shakily, her lips in a trembling pout as she stopped. Vincent surveyed them both.  
  
"I have no medical training, how do you expect me to be of service?" he questioned coyly.  
  
"I...I don't know...We needed you anyways...but that's different. Vincent, we need to help him...take him to Rocket Town!" she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "They'll have doctors for the space mission...." Vincent's face didn't change.  
  
"His injuries shouldn't be life threatening if we hurry!" Tifa continued. Vincent sighed and closed his eyes,   
  
"Bring me the bandages from Hojo's labs and some potions from his shelves. That should hold him until we can get him to Rocket." Tifa nodded furiously and dashed off to the lab to retreive the forementioned supplies.  
  
"wh-wha!? What the fuck!?" Cloud's childish voice shouting that way made Vincent smile wryly for a second, but he knew that this wasn't the time for that.   
  
"Calm down, boy. You fell down the stairs."  
  
"Holy shit! I'm bleeding! I'm fucking bleeding..oh my god my fucking LEG!" Cloud screamed, trembling in the coffin.  
  
"Calm down!" Vincent said sharply, but Cloud was tossing and griping in the coffin.  
  
"Fuck! What happened. What the FUCK happened to me!? Holy SHIT I'm gonna fucking die. Holy FUCKING SHIT!" His chest rose and fell sharply, and his body shook as he checked it over. He'd torn off the makeshift bandages and blood was pouring down his small body now.  
  
"Stop! You're going into shock....You'll die. Stop." He sounded just as calm as ever, but he was begining to worry slightly. The kid would worry himself to death if he didn't calm down.  
  
"Here!" Tifa had bottles of green liquid in her arms on top of rolls of gauze.  
  
Vincent swiftly grabbed the offered supplies and set off to work. Tifa ducked and stepped on her tiptoes anxiously, trying to see what was happening, annoying Vincent to the point of anger.  
  
"Stop!" he growled, "You'll see him when I'm done....I think his life is more important than your curiosity." he snapped, tying off a bandage around the young hero's leg.   
  
Tifa cowered backwards, her head lowered. She hadn't meant to be a nusiance to Vincent, she was just worried. But she didn't want to say that right now...he was busy, and the last thing Tifa wanted was to be yelled at again. Vincent was frightening enough when he WASN'T upset. She didn't need to have him being mad.  
  
"There...." He turned and had the small boy scooped up in his arms. He was trembling, wearing just his shorts and the bandages over his chest. Blood had begun to soak through the dull white of the gauze already, and Vincent noticed the continued bleeding. "We need to get to Rocket. He's not going to make it if he doesn't get some blood in him." Vincent said sharply, and began a brisk stride out of the mansion, which Tifa had to run at her top speed to keep up with.  
  
***  
  
The air was warm and humid in the small town of Gongaga, and beads of sweat were trailing down the young boy's face. His grey eyes drooped he was breathing hard as he pushed his unruley black hair out of his face. The hill on which he sat gave a beautiful view of the village not too far away.  
  
"It's so pretty." The little girl who sat next to him commented. Her light chestnut hair was in a single long plait down her back, which was mussed and damp now from the heavy fog and sweat. The sun shone over the town, coming close to its setting phase.  
  
"It's a big orange ball." The boy commented. He was sitting there in just a pair of cut-off jean shorts and some velcro strapped sandles. He had a muscular but lean chest and arms, with legs the same. He was probably no more than twelve or thirteen years old, but looked more like an older teenager.  
  
"Zack!" the girl cried, exasperated, "Come on...just look at the colors. They blend so well!" she said gleefully, hugging her knees to her small chest. She was a year or two younger, and that was much easier to be seen. Her body was in an akward, partially developed stage just before she even really reached adolesence.  
  
"They're orange." he said dully, with a bright grin on his face. That beautiful, childish grin captivated her. In all her years (okay..so she only had a few) she had never known anyone quite like Zack. He was different... somehow. She couldn't place it... but she knew he was.  
  
"Zack...." she said quietly, in a sing-song voice. She had a plan. It was one of those silly childish plans that young kids make up, not really knowing what any of it meant.  
  
"Yeah, Aeris?" he didn't look over, staring up at the setting sun. She was right, whether he admitted it or not, the colors of the late sunset were beautiful.  
  
"Zack. I think we should get married." she said decisevly. He looked over at her now, his eyes widened.  
  
"Aeris...you can't just do that."  
  
"And why NOT?" she retorted. Aeris decided, the very moment before, that she loved Zack. And that she would make him her husband. That was her little plan...the kind kids love to make before they know what it all really is.  
  
"Because. You just...you can't!" he stood up quickly, "You have to be an adult and in love and stuff...you're just a little kid, Aeris. I'm not gonna marry you!" He had a disgusted look on his face, and Aeris's turned close to tears.   
  
"oh." she said softly, standing up as well.   
  
"Don't be like that." he sighed. She was only two years younger, but they were at the point where those two years meant everything in the world. "It's not that we're not friends or something. But I don't wanna marry you. I don't even wanna DATE you..." he cried.   
  
Aeirs looked down, dissappointed, but nodded.  
  
"I-" then she paused. Everything seemed to whirl around in a rushed mess, everything changed, and Zack seemed to see it too. Everything was different a moment later, and Aeris looked at Zack with huge eyes. "You're...young...and....ALIVE!?"  
  
((Sorry this chapter sucked, but I was in a rush. It will pick back up...promise)) 


	5. A day in the life of

((A/N: wow... it's been quite a while since I did anything with this fic, but I decided I kinda liked it so I'm continuing it. Not to mention the fact that it gets my mind off real-life issues. sniffles a little and turns away Anyways, I guess it's all because o' one person that I'm doin' this because even now I don't want him to read shitty fics by me... I'm hoping to make this one good. I know the last chapter sucked, but I promise I'll make things better!! Now.. on to the story.. -Tif

OH, AND A WARNING: I use the word 'pussy' alot in this chapter.))

"Midgar is no place for a child." The woman argued, her words harsh and her eyes even worse as she glared into the adjacent man's eyes.

"And where the hell are we supposed to go, Uki? You think we got money to just pick up and leave? You think I'd be workin' for SHINRA if we did!?" His eyes were gray, and they burnt into the younger woman's soul. He was right, she knew, but this was still no place for the two to be raising their child.

"Look..." she began with a heavy sigh and no idea where she would be going with this, "...I know things will be hard, but look... Reeve's been sickly since he was born. He's a growing boy, but he can't do a damn thing because of this place... the polution is near toxic for adults, how can a child stand it, Rei? We need to get him some fresh air... give him a chance to actually live." The man merely snorted.

"He'll have plent of time for that when _he _has a job.. when _he's _payin' the rent and bustin' his fuckin' ass for every day's meals, an' to keep the hell out of the fuckin' slums. You should be thankfull, not complaining. That's all you ever fucking do... complain..." At this point, she had backed away a few paces from him. This would be the time when he would normally start throwing his punches. But not today, she wasn't going to let him do that again.

"Look, Rei... I've had enough of this...."

"So what the hell are you gonna do about it, Uki? You gonna leave? You really think you'll go a week without gettin' fuckin' killed? You _need _me, Uki... don't kid yourself!" He yelled, slowly coming closer as she now backed into the front den, where her sixteen-year-old son now sat, a pair of headphones giving off a low hum from across the room. His hair was slightly long and pulled back into a ratty pony tail, black tufts hanging out on the sides. His eyes shut tightly as he rocked back and forth to the music.

"I won't... I'm not gonna kid myself any more..." She grabbed her son's hand and pulled him forcefully, knocking the headphones off of him and spilling a drink that was in his hand. He began to protest but she had him out the door and running, for what she was sure to be their lives, within a matter of seconds.

"How is this possible?" Zax murmered, running his fingers through Aeris's hair, then looking himself over, then her again. "We should... both be..." his voice trailed but Aeris nodded, knowing that he was wondering the exact same thing as she.

"I... don't know. Cetra... at least as far as I know... they don't even have the power to turn back time..." the look of confusion in her eyes only added to Zax's frustration. The last he could remember was the gentle flow of the lifestream, then he was suddenly here... in Gongoga... alive.

"This doesn't make SENSE!" he growled, letting himself fall to the ground. He closed his eyes tightly and seemed to be concentrating on something. Aeris, on the other hand, seemed to be equally focused on everything.

"What does it matter?" she finally asked, her voice sounding infinitely more mature than her young body. "I mean... we're alive, right? So what's the use in worrying about it? We can do it right this time, Zax... no Shinra, no SOLDIER, no pain...."

"No Cloud?" and at this moment the back of Aeris's mind where she'd stored the events leading up to her death clicked over and she remembered Cloud. And it wasn't so easy any more... there wasn't a single sure choice where everything else is merely a joke. There was Cloud, and she still loved him.

The twenty-some year old man was deviastated.

Sitting on an overhang in the nearby Nibel mountains, nothing was all he could seem to do. Only hours before, the whole world had been going for him... the promise of a place in history forever with the launch of Shinra's first manned space launch. And in just a single moment, this dream was shattered like it was nothing. This was the first time Cid Highwind really began to hate fate.

Shera was everything he could've imagined in a woman for himself, though being the man he is he could never show that. She was kind and intelligent, soft spoken, and caring. Basically, Shera was everything Cid was not.

The past two years had been spent by Cid not only preparing for his space mission, but also trying to win over the young scientist's heart. He could recall a distant time when she left for college, but in those days her absence meant little to him. There were still many women in the village, any of which he decided he could easily have. He learned in due time that this was, however, not the case. Not only did he appeal to none of them, but, in addition to this, they all seemed to be what he didn't want. Prissy and snobbish, rude and arrogant. If he wanted someone like that, he'd be alone.

But at this point in time, even solitude seemed more appealing than the woman whom he had once loved, but now had destroyed his forever dream of traveling in to space. Not to mention the dreams of his entire crew, the shit he'd be taking from every man and woman working with him on that ship. And the heartbreak from the disappointment he knew his father would have for him.

"At least now he has a reason." Cid decided out loud, as the thought crossed his mind. Prior to this occasion, it all seemed meaningless disappointment and hate, but at least now he would have a reason to feel these things. This would be his only chance to fufill his dreams, and he passed it by because he didn't want to hurt one person. All was gone because he was too much of a pussy, he knew his father would say, to take just a single life in the crossfire. As if it weren't worth it, he also knew the old man would grumble.

Cid almost wished he could proudly say he was different than his father in that way, but he couldn't. He was ashamed of not being heartless and callous as his father was, as if by having emotions he was no longer the same level of man. Perhaps if his father didn't instill this belief within him, he wouldn't have it drilled into his heart, but that's not how things turned out for Cid, and he was what he was. That, in his father's eyes, was a wimp and a coward.

He took a last drag off the cigarette he'd lit and tossed it out over the cliff, the same way he'd tossed the better half of the pack. Immediately, he replaced it with a new one, never taking his eyes off the endless horizon.

"Cid!" now he did look up, hearing his father's gruff voice further down the trail. The old man was limping up towards him, but Cid was not brought to his feet as he usually was. He had no reason now, as he was sure he would never gain his father's respect.

"The fuck you want?" he growled in a low voice, no longer afraid of the consequences. His father held no power and all power over him, and right now he decided that whatever he would 'do' about his language would be, at most, a distraction.

"Watch your mouth!" he commanded, "And put that thing out..." he added before stopping at the edge of the lookout. Fenced in in front, with only one narrow exit point, Cid was left without escape. He knew exactally what was coming next; The straight-from-the-book 'stop being a fuckin' woman' talk. It was always the same, whenever he disappointed his father, and he was rather sure it began only after his mother's death.

_A death his father caused. _his mind always told him, though he would never be sure it was true. All he really knew was that one day he and his mother left, and only his father came back. There wasn't a single day when the old man mentioned his late wife, or even seemed a bit distressed by it, which was what gave Cid all the proof he needed to convict his father.

He took another long puff off the cigarette before he discarded this one the same as the last, knowing his father would only do it for him if he didn't.

"Save your breath, old man... I don't need to go through this again, you've done it enough damn times for me to know... I'm a woman, I'm a pussy, I'm a fuck-up, I'm a failure..." he began listing off the various names his father had given him over the years, only to be cut off.

"Can it, son... none of that this time." The tone in his voice was something Cid had never heard before, which made him build even more walls. He must have a good one for today, he'd assumed, his cold gray eyes finally meeting his father's. "I wanna say... you did the right thing..." he finally spoke, and Cid could now tell he was pained. _Pain.._ one of the many things the man had deemed womanly and pussy-defining.

"What? It was a damn fool thing, I did... Ain't never gonna get that kind of chance again..."

"...no, you're probably right about that." The old man paused, and Cid was sure that for the first time he could remember, his father was actually thinking before he spoke. "...but you wouldn't have gotten the chance to save that woman either, and her ass is a lot more important than your fucking sky-high dreams..."

"Thanks alot, dad." Now Cid saw where he was going. His father always disapproved of his 'dreams' and 'hopes'. More pussy talk, he deemed them, and that would not do. No, nothing that could be improbable, nearly impossible, would be thought of in his household. Cid was to own the shop his father was now running in town, and with risk of his father's fury, do a damn good job of it. This was just his way of saying 'told you so.'

"Listen, I wasn't happy when they offered you that job with Shinra. A bunch of crooks, I know them as... but you seemed to be keepin' out of my hair after it, so I went along with it. Now that you blew your chance, which was better than gettin' blamed for some stupid mechanic's death, it looks like I was right all along." Now Cid stood, he couldn't take it any more. The years had built up, and he knew his father would never change. He gave him every opportunity to do it, but he never took the chance. Now he'd had enough. Every put-down and let-down, profanity and insult had built up to put into motion a now unchangable turn of events. He barely knew what he was doing when his fist thrust into his father's abdomen, and even less as he gave him the extra shove to send him over the edge.

He didn't realize that he was smiling as he watched the old man fall, as he heard the sickening crack and break of the tree branches, the grin on his face as he headed down the mountain. He was totally unaware.

((A/N: I know this chapter was kind of short, and just a begining for each of the new chapters that will come after we take another chapter of Cloud and Tifa. Well, the next chapter will be Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, and the addition of CID to the party! woohoo! But will Cloud stay, or will it be down to three still!? Gasp gasp gasp! What will happen? Will you ever know? YES! I WILL UPDATE AGAIN SOON! ))


	6. More introductions

((A/N: Here we go again (again)! ; singing to herslef a song you don't care about AANNNNYHOW! Here's the next chapter in my 'enthrawling' story. I'm begining to love this one, so there's a good chance that I'll continue it. I realized that Cloud probably SHOULD have been all dizzy and fucked up before, but oh well. I just realized I probably shouldn't have so much swearing in a PG 13, but I want you all to be able to find it, so I'll keep it until they ban me. ;; Anywho, please enjoy. This chappie is for my buds Steffers and Shadows! U gyz r teh r0x0rz))

"What did they say!?" To the others in the hospital waiting room the tiny girl being so demanding to a full-grown man, especially one like Vincent Valentine, was so out of place it was almost comical. Almost.

"Calm down." He said, sitting down on a chair next to her. She knelt up on the chair facing him and still barely reached his shoulder. "They said that he doesn't seem to have any internal injuries, just a few fractures and a break or two. A day of monitoring and a few hits off a cure materia and he should be fine..."

"I wanna go see him..." She said, jumping off the chair. "Where is he?" Vincent stood swiftly and lead the child down the hall off the waiting room, into the ICU and to one of the rooms furthest from the nurse's station. "Thanks.." she mumbled before she dashed into his room, her eyes worried.

There were two beds in the room, seperated by a curtain. The first was a mess, with strewn sheets and a rank smell. A man in his early twenties stood near it, unscathed, with a cold expression in his eyes. She was sure she'd seen him before, but didn't want to think of where right now as she continued to the curtained off area where Cloud lay.

When she saw him, her blood ran cold. Vincent said he'd be fine, but he didn't look that way to her. He looked pale and fragile, laying still in the bed with monitors snaking from his small chest and tubes running from his nose. His eyes parted slightly as he heard her stiffled gasp and he smiled half-heartedly.

"There you are..." he mumbled, his speech slurred. Tifa ran closer to him, and she seemed to lose her ability to even keep a cool as her face poured out her every fear. "Don't worry... I'm fine..." he assured her, but in the worst way. In the way that he could hardly form the words, and she could hardly decipher them.

"You think I believe that? Look at you... everything's all broken in you, and you're hooked up to all these machines...."

"And I'm fine... I sound like shit because of the drugs." he spoke slowly, hoping it made him sound a little better.

"I'm scared, Cloud..." she whispered, inviting herself to sit next to him on the bed, her legs crossed in front of her, holding tightly onto his hand.

"...and I'm telling you there's no reason to be scared, Teef..." he was becoming tired, she could tell, as his eyelids drooped and willed themselves shut from time to time. She sighed in resignition, though only because she knew he needed sleep,

"alright, alright." she puncuated her words with another sigh, "Just go to sleep and I'll stop nagging you about it."

This was a deal Cloud greatfully made and he fell asleep almost instantly after summoning Tifa down for a quick kiss.

"When I heard Shera's voice over the intercoms.... when I figured out she was the numbskull who stayed down below, I wasn't as shocked as I should've been, I suppose. But I was worried... she was the only gal in the village I could get along with without wanting to kill, as completely bad as that sounds. Now anyways, when she said it was all beacuse of that damn broken oxygen tank, I was fuckin' pissed. It's one tank out of seven... what's the worst that could happen with one less oxygen tank, y'know... I mean, they must give you extra for a situation like this, right?

"Well, apparently she don't believe in doin' her shit half-assed, because she's sittin' down the hall with burns over half her goddamned body. I guess the temperatures were already gettin' somewhere, and she got somethin' like a second degree sunburn, right through the fuckin' clothes. Damn...

"Now, back to my little story... This was my dream for as long as I remember... to go into space. Not even to be one of the first, just to go. I've always wondered what it might be like to just drift with the stars, but I guess it wasn't in my best interests if it ain't happenin' for the second time now... fate just don't like me, now does she?

I guess Lady Luck ain't my biggest fan either, though, huh?

"Well... after the launch failed the last thing I needed was a bunch of little media fucks gettin' kicks an' ratin's off my failure, so I escaped up to my favorite point up in mount Nibel... a little look-out point that shows everythin' of the ocean. I figured I could escape everyone I didn't wanna be by there.

"My old man showed up later, so I guess I was wrong, huh? Well, he was ready to give me his 'I told you so, you fuckin' pussy' shit, and I wasn't in the mood. I tried to get him to stop, but the only thing I could do...." A pause in his voice, a rage in his eyes, but no sorrow to be found, rather a suspicious hushed voice,

"I pushed him over the goddamned ledge. Down a hundred feet or more, straight to the rocks...."

If ever Vincent Valentine was shocked by a story, it was now. To think that the man he fought along side with was a murderer. But then again, weren't they all? AVALANCHE had caused the deaths of thousands, probably millions actually, and he was dwelling now on the solitary one commited by this man, barely even an adult. Perhaps it was because he was he saw this as a more personal assault. He pushed him over with his own hand... he knew and meant to kill this man first hand. Still, hadn't they done the same against Sephiroth?

Sephiroth, however, was evil. Cid's father? Perhaps he was mislead, naiive, an ass even, but evil?

"So that's basically what I'm doin' here."

Vincent had gone silent, as he usually was. Perhaps this is why Cid didn't take the time to wonder just how Vincent felt about his story. If, maybe, he disapproved. He just silently assumed that Vincent was the one person who would find this as close to commonplace as he did. Of course, it wasn't at all the normal day-to-day thing, but it wasn't the earthshattering event Cid was sure everyone else would make it into either.

"So... now you know how I got here.... what the hell are YOU doing here?"

"Okay... now explain this to me again, Aer, because I don't think I've heard you quite right. You're saying Cloud... Cloud _STRIFE_ is responsible for this?" Zack's huge gray eyes were wide and confused as he listened to her story. They were heading down an overgrown path, thick with weeds and grass sprouting through the once well-used trail that lead from Gongaga through Rocket Town, and subsequently to Nibelheim, where the two were sure to find just who Aeris was looking for.

"It's the only thing I can think of. I mean... who else would be dumb enough to go change the past? And it's not as if he isn't in it for all the right reasons, if I know him..." Zack sighed as his future love spoke. Zack had known Cloud, and he wasn't the noble, kind, heroic type Aeris was describing. He was just another bratty MP, like every other. Zack's lessor. Damn close to nothing as far as SOLDIER went.

"I guess he must've changed over the years, huh?" Zack smirked. Sure... he and Cloud had their share of drinks when they were in SOLDIER, but he never seemed like this. He knew for a fact that Cloud had a girl back home he had high hopes on impressing, but beyond that, he wasn't the most upstanding person. More than once had he been dragged back to his room, later waking with a mean hangover to testify his stupidity.

"What do you mean by that?" Aeris' eyes met his for a moment before he concentrated his back on the road.

"Well.... how well did you know the boy, Aer? You say he was out to save the world... but... you think maybe he was just saving his own ass?" Zack knew better than to trust Aeris' perceptions. Sure, she was a nice girl, bright in her own respects, but naiive. She took whatever she saw as what she wanted to see, and Zack knew that better than anyone.

"He was intent on defeating Sephiroth...." Aeris suggested, though not as confident as before. She knew that she could be a little off base at times, but Cloud was always a subject she thought she had down pact.

"A lot of people were intent on killing that bastard." Zack said plainly, and stopped walking now. He sat down right in the middle of the path and motioned for Aeris to do the same, which she did. "I really don't think Cloud's any different."

"Then I really don't think you knew him." Aeris contested, her voice clearly agitated. She'd fallen hard in love with Cloud, probably even harder than she'd fallen for Zack. How could someone that she loved be as bad as Zack was making him out to be?

"I wanna tell you about Cloud, Aeris... and I want you to listen good. It's a long ass story, and I wanna know that you're ready for it. It ain't pretty, and if you love him because of what you think he is, you're probably gonna fuckin' hate him after I'm done. You sure you wanna hear this?"

Aeris was hesitant. Cloud was everything she looked for in a man. Maybe he was only that because it's what she was looking for, though. If she heard Zack's truth, then she would know Cloud isn't the man she wished. But she'd also be consoled, as he'd still be the man Tifa had won.

"I wanna hear it." She finally said.

"Then make yourself comfy, because we're gonna be here for a damn long time."

"So what are you gonna do?" Reeve's lips curled up to hear his good friend's voice in the reciever of the pay phone.

"I'm gonna be there in the morning." He said, his eyes darting around. His mind was made up, and nobody was gonna stop him. He couldn't stay another moment on the streets with his mom. He'd decided long ago that he was too good turn out that way, and this was his only option at the moment.

"Really? You promise!?" He laughed when he heard Elena's excited voice. It had been only weeks since she'd left to join Shinra in hopes of becoming a Turk, a highly trained group of, basically, thieves and murderers.

"I already called the HQ. They're gonna set me up to take the test at three. Can ya sneak out to see me before then?" They were close... maybe lovers, but probably just close friends. The kind of friends that you want when you're a teenager... the kind you can fool around with.

"I'll do my best."

"That's all I can ask" He still smiled more excited than he before realized that he'd be seeing his friend soon."I'll see you then." she said happily then, "Love an' peace, babe!" before she hung up. He burst out into laughter at this, hanging up as well.

"God, Elena, I swear..." he smiled, but his anticipation vanished as soon as he turned away. His eyes were looking above the head then down into the eyes of his mother.

"So... where AREN'T you going tomorrow, exactally?"

"So... I guess we headin' back soon, huh?" The large man had let himself fall onto the bed, his eyes willing themselves shut even as he turned to look at his friend.

"Looks like it. Don't think there's much more we can do here. 'Sides that, The gals are probably outta their minds waitin' for us." The other man shot his friend a wide grin from his bed. "But y'know, Bear... it's more than that. Eleanor would kill us both if we were gone much longer."

Barret Wallace grinned and nodded. While he hadn't seen Corel in weeks, this was still a signficantly shorter trip than most. There were times where he and Dyne were gone for months at a time. Everyone should be happy with this arangement. Of course, Dyne's wife, Elanor was always the one to worry. And this time they were coming back with good reason...

Lydia was left in her care for the time being, stable when they left, but all knew her days were numbered. It pained Barret more than he would let anyone know to see his young wife lay dying, but there was little he could do for it. The illness was mysterious and her symptoms severe. Finding a cure seemed impossible, especially on the days when it seemed there would be no more.

"Yeah..." he murmered, finding himself lost in these thoughts of the ones they left back home. Was it really worth it? A few missions out in other towns already too far gone to really be saved? His time left with his wife was severly limited, and now he was wasting it with these goddamned lost causes Dyne cared so much about.

"Bear... sup? You seem.... out of it." Dyne's frown carried into his voice and Barret sighed. He didn't know why, but he dreaded telling his old friend that this seemed like a waste of time right now. Asking him if he could just lay off until... he couldn't seem to form that part in his mind. Taking time off waiting for someone he loves so deeply to die- what a plan.

"Just tired." he finally mumbled, not in the mood for explanations or excuses. This wasn't a lie, but by no means the complete truth.

"Whatever you say, Bear. We _did _kinda have a tough day today... get some rest. Tomorrow... we're home." This thought comforted Barret more than anything, and his dreams were few but pleasant.

((A/N: Sorry this took soooo long to complete, but I really just needed a break from everything. Now I'm gettin' in over my head, though, with all these stories going. Anyways, I suppose the next chapter or two will be a flashback type thing with Zack about Cloud, then I'll move on in some sort of semi-logical procession. Plus, I haven't introduced Yuffie, Nanaki, or any of the Turks apart from Elena. Blah... this is gonna take a bit.))


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